The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Company in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was bought by Doug Pray in the early 1960s and has specialised in these spectacular cars ever since.
Dougʼs son Adam recently unearthed a 1931 Model J Duesenberg, chassis number J346, which he had been asked to sell on behalf of its owners. “Tom Hawkinson bought the car in 1961 for $5000,” Adam explains. “He worked on it for a bit, then for whatever reason put it into storage in the one-car garage at his home in 1967. His daughter Rebecca remembers driving it around when she was about 12 years old, but after that the car did not come out of the garage until we did a deal on it in October 2022.”
Doug had taken a call from Rebecca saying that her dad was getting older and had given the car to her back in 2003, and the family now needed to sell it. Doug and his wife drove to Illinois to visit Rebecca and see J346 in person.
In November 2022 the car was brought back to Broken Arrow so its true condition could be assessed, and so ACD Co could find a good home for it. A friend of the firm came forward and made a substantial offer for the Duesie, which was accepted. “The Model J was then worked on to get it running,” explains Adam, “so it could be displayed in unrestored condition at last yearʼs 65th Annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Reunion on Labor Day weekend.”
BOOTED FORD HAS ITS OWNER WONDERING Y
Stuart Perren owns an unusual 1936 Ford Model Y ‘Tudor’ with an enclosed steel boot featuring a hinged lid, and a glazed numberplate and tail-light cluster as found on period prestige cars such as Rolls-Royces and Lagondas (below left).
When he was a child, Stuart’s family had a 1936 Ford 8 Y ‘Fordor’, and he served his apprenticeship as a technician at a Suffolk Ford dealer before becoming an insurance assessor. Having built and restored a number of competition cars for autotests and trials, he was looking for a project and found this example in Stockport through the Ford Model Y & C Register. Its previous owner, Bill Plevin, had died six years earlier, having owned the car for 30 years and carried out some restoration. His widow then kept the Ford in her garage until the time came to move house. As soon as Stuart saw the boot, he had to have the car and a deal was done.
There is very little history with the Model Y, however. BUR 896 was registered new
